The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1887-10-06

The ideal hone beautiful is attaine
rather by avoiding errors q taste than b
the adoption Of special dogmas Of ar'
For my own part, il | have any dogmas B
preach they may fairly be condensed i
this one rule; avoid shams and aflsc,s
tions Of all kinds I"
Don, mistake mere preitincss for beau
iy. Millinery, for instance is out OF place
in the home beautiful
Don't attach TO your chairs and soii
cushions meaningless bows OF ribbon
which lie nothing
"Don'i dress up your toilet tables in
muslin petiooais stiilened with csinoline
or colored calico,
Don't scatter startling white "tidies
about chairs and sofas as on 80 many
bushes, as il yonr were hanging ont the
wash to dry
Don't display on your walls china plates
aud dishes. They were never meant to
90 there, An exception may be made now
aad then in favor OF a piece OF fine color
to help light up the room. or where deli
lcate china painting is worthy Of careful
examination. But hang up ordinary do
mi site chinal Don'tl
Don't hang small pictures so that theft
beauty is lost to any one under eight ieot
high. II q picture is not seen from the
same position that the artist saw II when
he painted it, the drawing will appear
foreshortened aud the general effect CON
sequently falsided.
Don't hang any picture in the home
which has not the impress Of elegance,
purity and cheeriulness.
Don't give place to representations Of
corpses, tortured saints or anything oc
casioning painful emotions. And above
all, having such pictures and not wanting
them downstairs, don't Danish them to
the nursery, scbool-rooms or bed room.
Some things | would relegate to the
bed room out Of the way somewhere in
locked drawers, for instance, | mean
mementoes Of seaweed and dried ferns or
flowers, and wretched daubs on china,
canvas or paper, the crude efforts OF
youthful members Of the family. No
true lover of the home beautiful will in.
flict these on his family and friends and
compel them to violate truth by pretend
ing TO like them.
Don't buy your carpet or your wall pa
per because it looks pretty in the roll
when you see it in the store. But think
Of the fitness OF each with its ultimate
Remember that the carpet
is to be background for your furniture,
and the wall paper-unless it is to be the
actual decoration OF the walls is to be
merely background for your pictures.
Don't admit into the home beautiful any
piece Of furniture or implement of every
day life which does not honestly serve its
purpose light, himsy chairs which an
able bodied man dare not sit upon; no |
puffy, debiitated sofas, all wind and
springs; no FURNISHED brass s.sheeted fire.
rons, bought only to look at, and give
place TO the ugly little black poker and
shovel when coal is to be broken or ashes
ire to be removed.
There is no reason why an object should
,ot be useful as well as ornamental. In
Iced, there can be no beauty without fit
less. Nature everywhere teaches us the
compatibility of the highest utility with
he greatest beauty.
And so with beauty and truth. There
nay be truth without beauty; but there is
10 beauty without truth. Truth, beauty
md utility are the inseparable trinity Of
he ideal home. Let us then write them
lpon the portals Of the house as the
pitome OF all that is most admirable in
elieion, in art. and in every day life.